SOLAR ROADWAYS

Submitted by:

S.SWETHA
 are driven upon. The idea is to replace all
current petroleum-based asphalt roads,
parking lots, and driveways with Solar
Road Panels that collect energy to be used
by our homes and businesses. The
renewable energy generated by solar road
panels will replace the current need for
fossil fuel which is used for generation of
electricity as also oil used for driving the
vehicles which in turn reduces the
greenhouse gases nearly to half. The
implementation of Solar Roadways
Technology will create the clean energy
boom, spurring private investment on a
massive scale, with relatively little extra
cost. An intelligent highway infrastructure
and a self-healing decentralized power grid
that will eliminate our need for fossil fuels.
Solar Roadways will also features wildlife
preservation, the elimination of impervious
surfaces, law enforcement, DUI detection,
counter-terrorism, etc. It provides a
decentralized, secure, intelligent, self-
healing power grid which pays for itself.
Today more than ever we see and feel the
consequences of the climate change. From
melting ice caps, to the rising sea levels,
weather changes and temperature rises,
there are

ABSTRACT:

The Solar Roadway is a series of more and more natural disasters that we
structurally-engineered solar panels that learn about from the news. People have
come up with many different kinds of
methods and solutions in order to fight
these changes but not many of them are as
effective as needed. Thus we need to step
on more complex approaches and more
general and interlinked solutions for
solving the pressing problems.
There is, however, a technology that can
help us to normalize our climate, but also
help in our daily lives. We offer Smart
Solar Roadways as one possible solution
that can drastically change our way of
living for better. Smart Solar roads
combine different solutions in one it can
help us to improve energy production from
solar panels, to collect and distribute rain
water, to provide a digital platform for
Smart city, to facilitate emerging electric
cars and driver-less cars and much more!
We believe that this approach can offer
many additional benefits to citizens, to the
environment and will contribute for
sustainable development as a whole. Some
may call it even the next Industrial
revolution, we like to think of it like a
better tomorrow. So its time to upgrade
our infrastructure (especially roads &
power grids) with the 21st century
technology i.e.
Solar Roadways.
INTRODUCTION
Hearing the concerns about global
warming and knowing our dependency on
fossil fuels the solar roadways imagined to
develop roadways with solar panels. This
innovation is begun in early 2009 and later
the company was established by name
Solar Roadways in U.S. and awarded a
contract by federal government.
The Solar Roadway is a series of
structurally-engineered solar panels that
are driven upon. The idea is to replace all
current petroleum-based asphalt roads,
parking lots, and driveways with Solar
Road Panels that collect energy to be used
by our homes and businesses. . The
ultimate goal is to store excess energy in or
along-side the Solar Roadways. This
renewable energy replaces the need for the
current fossil fuels used for the generation
of electricity. This, in turn, reduces the
greenhouse gases to half.
Solar Roadways is proposing a long-view
paradigm-shift solution to major
infrastructure, energy and climate
challenges. The Solar Roadways system
would might, at present, cost about three
times what it costs to install an asphalt
road, but would be more durable more
easily replaced in modular fashion, and
able to pay for itself by generating more
electricity than our economy can consume.
At just 15% efficiency, far below what is
expected, a 100% .
 entire nation. Thats why asphalt is not
ideal for road construction.

Solar Roadways can pay dividends for the

public budget, making our spending on
infrastructure more efficient and
significantly reducing electricity costs to
consumers and businesses. They can make
the emerging electric vehicle economy far
more affordable, and easier to manage.
Solar Roadways enabled driving They can help us eliminate hundreds of
infrastructure would produce three times billions of dollars per year, or more, in
total electricity demand. There are externalized costs of burning fossil fuels.
additional benefits as well, which is a And, we can lead the world in powerful
built-in smart grid, major new investment clean energy technology exports, capable
and job creation, the economic benefits of rolling back massive pollution and
inherent in global leadership in building greenhouse gas emissions.
the most advanced clean energy
infrastructure every dollar invested in Perhaps the most important element of the

renewable sources, ultimately generates Solar Roadways technology is that its

returns, because the resource is not burned power-generation capacity demonstrates

and lost. The roadways can also the base load viability of renewable energy

communicate with drivers, alerting drivers sources. Clean energy technology

with visual messages to the presence of existence can power the entire countries

pedestrians in a crosswalk. economy, and more. But the required is

Asphalt works, in many ways, and is
convenient to lay-down, compared to other
methods. It has carried our automotive
st
infrastructure into the 21 century. But
there are hidden costs that are making it
increasingly difficult and expensive to
continue favoring asphalt as
predominant road-paving model for the
commitment to major investment and
incentives in building the infrastructure. If
up-gradation is done with this technology,
we can create jobs, and a clean energy
boom, spurring private investment on a
massive scale, with relatively little extra
cost.
the
SOLAR ROADWAYS
The Solar Roadways consists of travel through the Solar Roadways, which
structurally engineered solar panels that acts as a conduit for these signals (cables).
we drive on. Each Solar Road Panel This feature eliminates the unsightly
(roughly 12 by 12) interlinks with power lines, utility poles, and relay
neighboring panels to form the Solar stations we see all over the countryside. It
Roadways system. The Solar Roadway also eliminates power interruption caused
replaces our crumbling petroleum-based by fallen or broken electrical lines or
asphalt highway infrastructure with an poles.
intelligent road that pays for itself through
Each Solar Road Panel uses some of its
the generation of electricity. The Solar
own power to light up embedded LEDs,
Roadway generates electrical power from
which paint the road lines from beneath
the sun and becomes our nations
the road surface.This feature also allows
decentralized, intelligent, self-healing
messages to be spelled out on the road
power grid, replacing our current
surface, such as SLOW DOWN, or
deteriorating power distribution
ACCIDENT AHEAD. Road lines can be
infrastructure.
instantly repainted to direct traffic to a
single lane or to detour. This eliminates the
need for cones or flares. Better visibility at
night with the road lines illuminated, it
will be like driving on a well-lit runway.

The Solar Road Panels heat themselves for

snow and ice removal in northern climates.
No more need for snow removal or
school/business cancellations. These safer
driving conditions (roads lit at night, no
snow/ice, etc.) will prevent many accidents
The Solar Roadway distributes its
and allow for reduced insurance rates
electrical power to all businesses and
both health and automotive.
homes connected to the system via their
parking lots and driveways (made up of All additional power (unused by the panels
Solar Road Panels). In addition to themselves) is sent down line to homes
electrical power, data signals (cable TV, and businesses. We could produce three
high-speed internet, telephone, etc.) also times the total electrical power used by the
country and almost enough electricity to wipe out most of the rest of the causes of
power the entire world. No more power greenhouse gases. There are many other
outages, roaming or otherwise. features, including wildlife preservation,
the elimination of impervious surfaces, law
enforcement, DUI detection, counter-
terrorism, etc.

An intelligent highway infrastructure and a

self-healing decentralized power grid that
will eliminate our need for fossil fuels and
also it will lead to less invest in antiquated
technology viz asphalt and overhead
power lines.
The Solar Roadway produces
The solar Roadways can save the
clean, renewable energy. No pollution, no
wonderful countries in the world. The day
greenhouse gases, no by-products, and the
by day the human beings are looking for
Solar Road Panels are completely
the answers to our deteriorating highway
recyclable or reusable. The main cause of
infrastructure, our crumbling power grid,
global warming is creation of electricity
and the climate crisis. For all such
by fossil fuels which will contribute to
questions the answer is SOLAR
production of green house gases and
ROADWAYS".
effect on ozone layer. The Solar
Roadways eliminates this (half of the SOLAR PANELS
cause of Global Warming) entirely. The solar panels are divided into three
basic layers:-
The Solar Roadway, being an electric
road, will also make all-electric vehicles Road Surface Layer.
more practical; recharging stations can be Electronics Layer.
placed in all parking lots and rest stops. Base Plate Layer.
This will allow the all-electric vehicles to
have the same driving range of current
internal combustion gasoline- or diesel-
powered vehicles. Elimination of internal
combustion engines, which would now be
feasible with the Solar Roadways, would
3.1 Road Surface Layer
3.2 Electronics Layer
As this is the top most layers of the
Electronics Layer Contains a
assembly & also from this layer the solar
microprocessor board with support
rays will reach up-to the photovoltaic cells;
circuitry for sensing loads on the surface
they should be translucent and high-
and controlling a heating element. By
strength. Also this is made in such a
implementing this technology no more
fashion that it is rough enough to provide
snow/ice removal and no more
great traction to avoid the skidding of
school/business closings due to inclement
vehicles. As the material is made rough but
weather in the snow falling regions. The
the material used is translucent, it still
on-board microprocessor controls lighting,
passes sunlight through it to the solar
communications, monitoring, etc. which
collector photovoltaic cells embedded
are fitted at every 12 feet distance; which
within it, along with LEDs and a heating
can prove the Solar Roadways as an
element. And it is tough enough for
Intelligent Highway System.
handling today's heaviest loads under the
worst conditions and it is made water- Base Plate Layer
proof so that it can prevent electronics While the electronics layer collects energy
layer beneath it. from the sun, it is the base plate layer that
distributes power (collected from the
electronics layer) and data signals (phone,
TV, internet, etc.) "down-line" to all homes
and businesses connected to the Solar
Roadway. The base layer is made
weatherproof so that it can provide the APPLICATIONS OF SOLAR
electronic layer above it. ROADWAYS

Are the solar panels practical? 1. INTELLIGENT HIGHWAY

The short answer is yes! People may ask
Every country tries to barely keeping up
themselves Isnt glass softer than
with the costs of maintaining the roads and
asphalt? and the answer is no. This
bridges as it is, and the cost of construction
table shows object ranked according
materials is skyrocketing. New materials
Mohs Scale of Hardness.
and technologies have to be found to
replace these current archaic systems.
0 7 Graphite
1 3 Asphalt The Solar Roadway is an intelligent road
3 0 Copper Penny
system that provides clean renewable
5 5-6 Knife Blade
5 5-6 Plate Glass energy, while providing safer driving
conditions, along with power and data
delivery. The Solar Roadway will pay for
itself through the generation of electricity
By comparison, it is asphalt that is soft. along with other forms of revenue. The
But Solar Road Panels are made of same money that is being used to build and
tempered glass and tempered glass is 4-5 resurface current roads can be used to
times stronger than non-tempered build the Solar Roadways. Then, since
glass.Further testing has revealed that the coal-fired and nuclear power plants will no
surface of the panel road is less slippery longer be needed, the costs of all
than a normal road. electricity generation plants can also be
And they are easy to maintain. During rolled back into the Solar Roadways.
winter, they melt the snow off them,
A steady rise in congestion and ongoing
making it safe for driving but also possible
deterioration of decades-old roads and
to collect sunlight.
bridges, funding agency of government is
failing to keep up with the need to
maintain existing infrastructure and
increase capacity. And the cash shortfall is
only going to get worse.
 There is a much better way.
Imagine a highway infrastructure that
relieves the financial obligations of
funding agency of government and instead
pays for itself. The Solar Roadways will
generate electricity approximately up to
three times more than the entire country
currently uses. The electricity generated
pays for the Solar Roadways. Additional
revenue can be acquired by leasing the
conduit within the Solar Roadways to
service providers such as the telephone,
cable TV, and high-speed internet
industries.
Currently, it's difficult to track these
vehicles, other than by radio. The Solar
Roadways form a wide area network, with
each individual Solar Road Panel
containing a microprocessor board with its
own address. Think of the Solar Roadways
as the internet, with each individual Solar
Road Panel acting as an online computer.
If we place
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)
tags on high-risk vehicles that we want to
track, the Solar Roadways would track
them in real time and we'd always know
exactly where they were at all times.
ILLUMINATED ROADS
Accidents drastically reduced unlike the
dark roads we drive on by night today, the
Solar Roadways will have LEDs which
will "paint" the lanes, and can be instantly
customized as needed.
Many people face the problem during the
night driving as they face the trouble
seeing the road lines at night, particularly
when the oncoming headlights are blinding
them or when it's raining. By
implementation of these illuminated roads,
the country can over come from this
problem & also accidents at night time will
get reduced henceforth the night-time
driving will be safer for all. A recent study
shows that the solar-road studs to light-up
the lines of roads during night time in an
area of England, which has reduced night
time accidents by 70%.There is no need to
expend energy lighting desolate roads
when no cars are traveling, so the
intelligent roadways will tell the LEDs to
light up only when it senses cars on its
surface - say 1/2 mile ahead and 1/4 mile
behind the vehicle as it travels. This way,
drivers will know an oncoming car is
ahead when they see the lights on the other
side of the road begin to light up ahead.
The LEDs can also be programmed to
move along with cars at the speed limit
and it gives warning to the drivers
instantly when they are driving too fast or
the speed of the car increases beyond the
speed limit. The LEDs will also be used to
paint words right into the road; it gives
warning to drivers if an animal arrives on
the road, a detour ahead, an accident, or
construction work. Central control stations
will be able to instantly customize the lines
and words in real time, alleviating traffic
congestion and making the roads more
efficient as well as safer.
Fig3:illuminated highways at night
OIL INDEPENDENCE. In 2010 alone,
we've lost thousands of lives in coal mine
and oil rig disasters and gas line
explosions. The Gulf of Mexico has
become a nightmare: lives and jobs lost -
ways of life gone. What (more) is it going
to take to drive us to wean ourselves off of
our dependency on fossil fuels?
In order to continue at todays pace, well
have to increase our world supply from 80
million barrels a day to 120 million barrels
a day by 2030.The U.S. light-duty vehicle
fleet (automobiles, pickup trucks, SUVs,
vans and small trucks) currently consumes
150 billion gallons (550 billion liters) of
gasoline a year, or 1.3 gallons of gasoline
per person a day. If other nations burned
gasoline at the same rate, world
consumption would rise by a factor of
almost 10. The number of vehicles
worldwide, now 1000 million, is expected
to triple by 2050, thanks largely to the
expanding buying power of customers in
China, India and other rapidly developing
countries.
While only 3 percent of America's
electricity is generated using oil, it
supplies virtually all of our transportation
needs. We own only 2 percent of the
world's reserves, but we use 25 percent of
the world's oil. If we could wean ourselves
off of internal combustion engines, we'd
have no further need for foreign oil. This
will require going with all-electric
vehicles.
As the vehicles are increasing the demand
of oil is also increasing. Only the America
is consuming 25% to 30% of oil for road
transport, European Union is consuming
nearly about 20% to 22% for road
transportation. So the sources of fossil fuel
are not sufficient to supply such a huge
demand world-wide.
Daily use of petroleum worldwide is 53 for internal combustion engines. The
million barrels a day for transportation removal of internal combustion engines
overall; from which 29 million barrels a eliminates our need for oil.
day for land transport for people, 19
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
million barrels a day for land transport for
freight, 5 million barrels a day for air Electric cars have actually been around for
transport for people and freight. a long time. They've just never been very
practical, due to the fact that they have to
So what will happen when the world runs
be recharged and there has never been an
out of oil? We know that we've got about
infrastructure for that. The Solar
another 50 years before this happens, but
Roadways allow electric cars to recharge
there are many reasons to believe
at any rest stop or business places that
otherwise; there's a lot of speculation and
have a parking lots made up of Solar Road
disagreement on the topic "peak oil", but
Panels. Drivers can recharge their vehicles
one fact is not debatable, oil has a very
while eating at a restaurant or shopping at
finite supply. Suburbans are already in
a mall. Electric vehicles (EVs) are on their
trouble. The whole concept behind
way. More and more car manufacturers are
suburban life is that you commute to work
offering electric vehicle options. It's a
30, 40, 50 miles. That's only viable if you
good thing too. Roughly 25% of
have cheap gas. The massive farms that
greenhouse gases come from the exhaust
feed the world are worked by internal
pipes of internal combustion engine
combustion vehicles. In the absence of
vehicles, which we've been using for well
fossil fuel, how many people can the world
over 100 years. As wonderful as they are,
support? Many people believe 1.5 to 2
electric vehicles have a major problem,
billion people. Our planet's current
due to their relatively short range
population is now approaching 7 billion
(generally less than 180 miles) they have
people. So again, what will happen when
to be recharged regularly, typically at the
the world runs out of oil?
owner's home. This means that they would
Until by replacing our deterioration be fit for running to the local grocery store
highway infrastructure and crumbling and back, but it wouldn't be feasible to
power grid with the Solar Roadways, take a cross country trip.
we'd create a system that will support the
recharging of all-electric vehicles. Using
all-electric vehicles will eliminate the need
 Roadway! By the way using electric cars
would eliminate most of the other half of
the cause of global warming and could
virtually wean the world off oil entirely.

Businesses replacing coal power with solar

How are EVs charged currently?
The scientific survey in America says (as
per July 2010) that the EVs are not
ecological in many areas due to less
supply or restricted supply of electricity to
the areas.
power. Drivers/car owners replacing their
internal combustion engine vehicles with
all-electric vehicles, charged by renewable
energy. And this will be the beginning of
the end of our dependency upon fossil
fuels

A true accounting of the environmental

consequences of these cars would have to
include the emissions of the power plants
that supply their energy. When Department
of energy researchers carried out such an
analysis, they found that the results are
very considerable with geography.

Since the Solar Roadway creates and SMART GIRD

carries clean renewable electricity, EVs
Our current power grid is based on
can be recharged at any conveniently
centralized power stations. Distribution of
located rest stop, or at any business places
power is handled through transmission
that incorporates Solar Roadways Panels
lines (overhead and underground), relay
in their parking lots (restaurants for
stations, and transformers. When a line
instance). Owners can plug-in their cars in
goes down (ice, lighting, wind, tress,
and recharge while they're eating or
utility pole hit by car, etc.), everyone on
shopping. Engineers are even investigating
the wrong end of the line loses power until
ways to use mutual induction to charge
the damage is repaired. If a power station
EVs while they are driving down the Solar
goes down, an entire section of the country
goes dark.
The Solar Roadways on the other hand,
replaces all current centralized power
stations including coal and nuclear-
powered electricity generation plants. With
the Solar Roadway, the road becomes the
power grid, eliminating the need for
unsightly utility poles and relay stations.
Power is generated everywhere - every
road, parking lot, and driveway. No more
power outages, roaming or otherwise. The
Solar Roadways generates "secure"
energy; it can't be deliberately shut down.
Not by terrorists, not by power companies,
it simply can't be shut down. The grid is
wondrous. And yet - in part because we've
paid so little attention to it, as we are in
21st century the grid are becoming old &
out dated. Its reliable but not reliable
enough, especially in the developed
countries & for countries whose
population is reached up-to saturation
level. Blackouts & power outs costs loss of
billions of dollars to such countries so it
needs to become more reliable, the rid
needs dramatic upgrading to handle a
different kind of power, such as
transmission of wind power and solar
power from remote places to big cities
through transmission lines.
Most important, the grid must get
smarter. The precise definition of "smart"
varies from one engineer to the next. The
gist is that a smart grid would be more
automated and more "self-healing," and so
less prone to failures. It would be more
tolerant of small-scale, variable power
sources such as solar panels and wind
turbines, in part because it would even out
fluctuations by storing energy. If we
dont expand our capacity to keep up with
an increase in demand of 40 percent over
the next 25 years, were going to see
healthy grids become increasingly less
reliable. Demand for electricity has
increased steadily for decades, yet
transmission lines that transport power
from generation plants to customers have
not been added or upgraded at the same
pace.
Even if transmission capacity is
increased, blackouts will still occur. The
entire power grid has to be refurnished,
because the existing control technology
the key to quickly sensing a small line
failure or the possibility of a large
instability is antiquated. To remain
reliable, the grid will have to operate more
like a fighter plane, flown in large part by
autonomous systems that human
controllers can take over if needed to avert
disaster. Using networking technology to
monitor - and react to - whats happening
in the grid at each moment can improve
efficiency and prevent outages.
We still seem to thinking inside the box;
the solution should not be to continue
repairing an antiquated system
centralized power stations and distribution
methods. Change is hard, but the engine
and transmission are like using 40-year-
old car, so as the vehicle is to be replaced
with new vehicle the transmission is also
to be replaced. Decentralizing
production of electricity can make the grid
more resilient and save some of the current
while when it flows through long-distance
transmission lines to the
households. The Solar Roadway
completely decentralized. Every Solar
Road Panel can generate and pass
electricity "down-line" to homes and
businesses. No loss to heat, no carbon
footprint, and no spent fuel rods. A self-
healing smart grid can best be built if its
architects try to fulfill three primary
objectives. The most fundamental is real-
time monitoring and reaction. An array of
sensors would monitor electrical
parameters such as voltage and current, as
well as the condition of
components. These measurements would
enable the system to constantly tune itself
to an optimal state.
Each Solar Road Panel measures 12 feet
(about 4 meters) by 12 feet and contains a
microprocessor board for control,
monitoring, and communications. It means
that you have a microprocessor (a small
computer) located every 12 feet in your
power grid. It monitors everything that
of
takes place within its 12 feet perimeter. It
tracks voltage and current that it generates,
uses, sends to or receives from
neighboring Solar Road Panels, etc.
The second goal is anticipation. The
the system must constantly look for potential
problems that could trigger larger
disturbances. With a microprocessor
located every 12 feet, we'll know when a
nations problem first presents itself. Each of the
is neighboring (physically connected) Solar
Road Panels communicate with each other.
If one of them stops communicating, then
something is wrong (panel is damaged
from lighting strike, overturned truck,
etc.). Neighboring panels will still be able
to communicate & can send the
information to a central control station. For
example, let's say lighting strikes the road
and does some significant damage; a hole
is blown clean through a Solar Road Panel
in the middle of an eight-lane highway.
critical Let's go even deeper and say that a path to
ground has been created and massive
amounts of current attempt to drain
through the damaged panel. Each side of
each Solar Road Panel is equipped with a
GFI (Ground Fault Interrupter), which
would shut off as soon as a current surge Renewability and life-span
was detected by the microprocessors in the
The main advantage of the Solar Roadway
undamaged neighboring panels. The
concept is that it utilizes a renewable
lightning damaged panel would be
source of energy to produce electricity. It
electrically isolated and the surrounding
has the potential to reduce our dependence
panels could toggle the LEDs bordering
on conventional sources of energy such as
the damaged panel. This would "paint" a
coal, petroleum and other fossil fuels.
square around the damaged panel to warn
Also, the life span of the solar panels is
drivers of the danger. Oncoming drivers
around 30-40 years, much greater than
would be warned of the brief detour. No
normal asphalt roads, which only last 7-12
power outage. Not even a disruption of
years.
services to any electrical customers.
No requirements to develop
The third objective is isolation. If failures
environmentally sensitive lands
were to occur, the whole network would
Another advantage of the Solar Roadway
break into isolated islands, each of
is that it does not require the development
which must fend for itself. This objective
of unused and potentially environmentally
isn't necessary with the Solar Roadway,
sensitive lands. This is currently a very
albeit certainly possible. The roadway is
controversial issue with large photovoltaic
the power plant and the transmission line.
installations in the Southwestern US and
If a tanker truck blows up and severs a
other places. But since the roads are
road completely in half, no power is lost
already there, this is not an issue. Also,
anywhere (except for the damaged panels).
unlike large photovoltaic installations, new
Electricity will just go around on a
transmission corridors -across
different road, in the same manner that a
environmentally sensitive land-would not
vehicle would during a detour. Again, the
be required to bring power to consumers in
undamaged neighboring panels would
urban areas. Transmission lines could
disconnect from the damaged panels and
simply be run along already established
call the problem in.
roadways.
ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES
On-the-go charging
Advantages With induction plating embedded inside
these roads, all electric cars can be
recharged while in motion on top of these
roads. This would reduce the costs and the
time-inconvenience to wait at a charging
station.
However, there can be enumerated a
number of benefits for developing smart
business models. As the panels can
generate not only their own electricity but
their own money as well, their
implementation will depend largely on
government regulations and public
support.
The road incomes can be generated
through:
. Through the generation of electricity
. By transporting cleaned storm water to
municipalities or agricultural centers
. By leasing the roadside conduit (Cable
Corridor) to entities such as utility
companies, telephone, high-speed internet,
cable TV, etc.
. By selling advertising in parking lots
with the configurable LEDs
. By charging people or companies to
recharge their electric vehicles. There can
be developed further business models for
Smart road implementation, maintenance
and use. Thus, we strongly believe that
more projects for Solar roads can provide
further opportunities for finding the right
manner to support this tremendous
paradigm change.
Disadvantages
In spite of these advantages, initially, the
start up and maintenance costs of building
such roadways and parking lots may be
extremely high. (However, advances in
this technology will (hopefully) cause the
costs to fall.) Another issue to deal with is
the efficiency of solar panels. The average
efficiency is currently a matter of concern.
Another disadvantage is that it cannot be
constructed in the poorest developing
nations due to the high initial start-up
costs. Road surfaces also accumulate
rubber, salt, etc., which block sunlight.
Solar roadways may not be feasible and
economical as it initial and installation
cost may be three times more compared to
our convectional roads, but if this is
evaluated as a long term investment this
may prove to be much more economical as
it pays us back.
Controversies
Although financed on several rounds by
US government agencys grants and then
collecting about 2.2 mio USD through
Indiegogo crowd funding campaign, the
solar roadways is subject of many
skeptical discussions. One article from
20144 just make a review of some of the
most popular ones:
Road safety
Driving or walking on a textured glass
surface is completely different than
asphalt, which is designed specifically to
increase traction. Solar Roadways says that
it has tested its wet textured glass surface
at a university lab and has shown that it
can stop a vehicle going 80 miles per hour
within the required distance. However,
more testing is needed;
Road durability
Durability is also not fully proven and
tested on practice, but only through a 3-D
modelinganalysis. Therefore, additional
implementation and testing can prove the
durability of the solar panels.
Available materials and equipment
During the prototype phase, company had
some problems with materials and specific
equipment delivery, that were difficult to
procure. But these issues with the
prototype could
be overcome with larger-scale automated
production. Now the solar panels are
broken down into four sections for easier
manufacturing and then assembled onsite.
With solar technologies advancements, the
performance of the solar cells themselves
can be further improved.
Undeveloped business case
The Solar Roadways declared that it would
simply be a manufacturer and let service
providers or governments figure out how
to finance and build projects. Thus
developing business models through
complicated network of private, state and
federal rules (US) for transportation
,planning, and involving revenue streams
in the model can bring the project on
practice.
CONCLUSION
We can't wait any longer to find a
replacement for oil, which is rapidly
disappearing. Our dependency on oil has
long been a matter of national security and
we don't want to wait until it's gone to
decide what to do next. We have the
technology to solve this problem in a
relatively short period of time, which may
be all we have left.
 In developing counties the major
part of the geographical area is to be
explored in terms of road connectivity. So
instead of implementing the higher targets
roads to be developed per day such
countries can reduce the target and
develop solar road so they could improve
economy with infrastructure.
Generally the Solar Roadways will:-
1. Create an intelligent, secure
highway infrastructure that pays
for itself.
2. Create an intelligent, secure,
decentralized, self-healing power
grid.
3. Eliminate the need for coal-fired or
nuclear power plants.
4. End our dependency on oil and
other fossil fuels (oil, coal and
natural gas)
5. Cut our nations greenhouse gas
emissions by over 50%.
6. Provide safer driving conditions.
7. Snow & ice management
8. Traffic management
9. Wild life protection
10. National security
11. Usage of recycled material
The solar panel road panels and the smart
roads that come with them can make a
major environmental as well as social
difference. They can offer new major
source of clean energy which on its own
will greatly impact the climate in a
positive way.
But smart roads can also optimize our
traffic so that work productivity is not lost,
fuel is preserved and many accidents are
avoided. These panels may be a big
investment at first but they will, without a
doubt, pay off in the long term, not only
financially but environmentally as well.
As a conclusion, we would quote Scott
Brusaw words:
Everyone has power. No more power
shortages, no more roaming power
outages, no more need to burn coal (50%
of greenhouse gases). Less need for fossil
fuels and less dependency upon foreign
oil. Much less pollution. How about this
for a long term advantage: an electric road
allows all-electric vehicles to recharge
anywhere: rest stops, parking lots, etc.
They would then have the same range as a
gasoline-powered vehicle. Internal
combustion engines would become
obsolete. Our dependency on oil would
come to an abrupt end.
It's time to upgrade our infrastructure -
roads and power grid - to the 21st
century.
Lets make things to happen
rather than waiting things to happen
Its better late than never
Lets go greener
 Kinnaird Posted Thursday, April
10th, 2008

REFERENCES
4. They Really Do Own the
Road Time
1. New Energy Centre, Department of
Mechanical Engineering, National
Magazine, by Barbara Kiviat,
Taiwan University, Taipei 10617,
October 29, 2007
Taiwan
Hyperphysics-gfi

2. Solar roadway at Tedx by Scott. Pmu-wikipedia

https://www.lkn.ei.tum.de/forschung/forsc
3. Bonner County Daily Bee by hungsthemen/smart-grid.html
Keith